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Praying for a Leader...

When you are privileged to pray for a leader, the hope is that you have enough relationship to be able to prayer effectively with information that they relay to you. What happens if you have a desire to really pray for the things that matter to your pastor/leader, but you can't get past the 'surface' prayer requests? Well, for those of you that are personal or crisis intercessors, that will probably irritate you, or discourage you...or just plain drive you crazy! You're wired to want to pray effectively! And always 'praying in the dark' without any focus, is hard. So? What can you do? Here's a couple of suggestions: #1 The best place to start, is always just showing faithfulness, even with the surface prayer requests. Remember, if you can show them your faithful, their confidence in you will grow. It may grow slowly..but it will grow. #2 Start with sharing a one or two things you 'get' when you pray for them. Don't overwhelm them, and DON...

Bad Deliveries....

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has either been given a 'word' that someone felt they received while praying for me - that ended up being a HUGE hindrance. I used to shudder to think that I would ever do that to anyone...but I've come to realise that as we grow and learn about praying for others, and in particular, praying for leaders, our learning curve increases and yes, sometimes our immaturity gets exposed. My top 5 'bad pizzas'! I remember once praying for a specific leader  who was in the public eye, and had a lot of pressure on him. I also remember sensing that because he was charismatic, and in the public eye, that there were alot of women who wanted to get close to him.  So, it probably would have been a good idea just to pray protection for him and his marriage, right? Right! But that's not what I did! I got so puffed with pride, that  God had shown me something, and I wanted to prove that I was hearing from the Lord about important stu...

Delivering The Pizza!!

OK...so did that title peak your interest?! What does 'delivering the pizza' have to do with praying for leaders? Well, I'm so glad you asked! As an intercessor, when I'm asked to pray for a leader, I'm usually asking God to speak to them,or show them what He's wanting them to do. I also often ask the Lord to let me be a confirmational voice  - I try very hard NOT to be directional ( and I'll explain that why later).  Often I will also ask God to 'give me something' for them - that's where getting words, scriptures or pictures, comes in! This is what I teach people to do with what they 'get'. When you feel you have received something for a leader, the best thing you can do is just 'deliver it' with no strings attached.  By that I mean, don't interpret it for them, give them your take on it . Just give it to them, and encourage them to ask God what He's saying to them through it. I liken this to 'delivering pizza...

Same Issues/Familar Battles

How often have you been asked to pray something for a leader, that you too, are waiting to see an answer on?  Believe it or not, I personally feel that this is a GREAT position for you to be in! Why?  Well, it's simple..... Matthew 7:12 The Message (MSG) 12 "Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God's Law and Prophets and this is what you get. So often I find that people feel that if they are still waiting on a victory in an area, or waiting for an answer to prayer, that they feel they can't pray with authority for someone who has the same need!  Not true!  Matthew 7:12 clearly tells us that we should do for them, what we'd want done for us.  I'll give you an example..... A number of years ago one of our children was not walking with God - in fact he was running in the opposite direction!  As a pastor and leader, I really struggled...

Unrelenting, Perservering Pray!

Luke 18: 1  ' Then He spoke a parable to them, that men should ought always to pray and not lose heart.' The greatest temptation for those of that have taken on a prayer assignment for leaders, is to lose heart while we wait for an answer.  To become faint-hearted. To be discouraged to the point of despair when we don't see the breakthroughs coming sooner !  We need to NOT let the enemy tell us that our prayers are not being effective, simply because some answers take longer than others. Those we are praying for cannot afford for us to give up or come to the conclusion that we 'don't have what it takes' to pray for them! Delayed answers by nature tend to stretch us, or cause us to lose hope. ' Hope deferred makes the heart sick'. Prov. 13:12.  "This 'heart sickness' ' is a natural human response when we are waiting on God for a long time.  But then the enemy comes to add his demonic fuiel to the the fire. He interjects doubts and li...

Called to Prayer Conference

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Called to Prayer Conference. With  Marilyn Wishart  and;  Pam Dyck.  February 24-25 Join us for a weekend of discovery of the joy of prayer!  Friday night 7 – 9:30 pm. Session 1   What is the call to Prayer? Session 2   Types of Intercessors Session 3   Activation excerise... Sat. 9a.m. – 4:30 pm. Session 4    Strategies of Battle and; How to endure in prayer. Session 5    Warfare Praying in Psalms – staying God focused when we prayed Session 6    Activation exercise Lunch  12:30 – 2:00 Session  7    Individual and Corporate Prayer Session  8    Prayer Shields – praying for those in spheres of influence Session  9    Activation exercise Being hosted at: Central Heights Church 1661 McCallum RdAbbotsford, BC V2S 3M4 Room 3003 /3004  Enter and park at the  Southside entrance (Please do not ...

Prayer Styles

I often teach or write on the different prayer styles. Why? If we don't understand that different people are wired and created to want to pray different ways, we'll get frustrated that everyone is not praying 'like us'.  OR..worse yet...we'll get critical of others, frustrated with them and their prayer style and you know what happens when intercessors get frustrated and critical....?  They usually end up either quitting prayer groups and praying by themselves.  Now, praying by yourself in itself, is not bad, but there are times when we need to come together to pray, and if we can't be 'ok' with the different pray styles, we'll miss out on some awesome corporate prayer.  Why does that matter? Well, every now and then, we get invited to these wonderful gatherings called 'prayer meetings' on behalf of someone, or on behalf of a need in the Body.  If we can't pray in a group, we'll miss out on the incredible blessing of Corporate Prayer!...